Skinny Book Therapy! @almaclassics @almabooks

What on earth is she wittering on about, I hear you cry! Well, simply that in our modern crazy-busy world it’s often impossible to find the time to read a classic because, frankly, some of them are just *soooo* big! Dickens, Dostoevsky, Trollope, Tolstoy – all produced some amazing books, many of which are my favourites; but they are, honestly, doorsteps. Now I love a brick of a book as much as the next reader, but sometimes I struggle to engage mentally with one, particularly when I’m going through a busy phase at work. However, a useful solution is at hand…. 🙂

I review books from the lovely publisher Alma regularly on the Ramblings, and their Evergreens series of affordable classics is a joy. These feature some truly great authors, from Woolf through Mansfield and back to Austen and the Brontes and so on. The books are always beautiful and often have extra supporting material. Plus they publish pretty new editions of my beloved Dostoevsky on a regular basis so that has to be good…. (note the editions in that *large* TBR pile!)

However, Alma have come up with an interesting new series entitled “101-page Classics” which features books of, you’ve guessed it, 101 pages in length! Now 101 pages is a very manageable size – I can read something that long in one go usually – and so I think this is a fabulous idea! There are 12 titles on the list so far, and the authors are a very nice selection, including Chekhov, Wilkie Collins, Dostoevsky, Emily Dickinson and Italo Svevo – so plenty of variety. Alma have been kind enough to provide a review copy of Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif” which I plan to read and review very soon, and there’s a serious risk of me wanting to start a special shelf for the 101 books…

Here are a few cover images of some of the forthcoming books – do check these out, especially if you’re nervous of a big fat chunky classic, or embarking on 800 pages from an author new to you – a 101-page Classic could be just the thing to help out…

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I suppose they had to be creative with font size, margins, blank pages, etc, to get them all to conform to that length! Great idea, though. I’m just off on a trip and taking a Trollope doorstop with me…

LOL! I guess so! They’ll be just right for when I’m off on my train travels – I like to take a decent read when I e.g. go off to London for a day, but as I’m having to carry it round all day it doesn’t want to be too big….

These are great. I have a hard time with chunkster classics. Just holding them is hard at times. I generally get them on audible now but these 101’s are great. Thanks for sharing. Wonder if they’ll make it to Oz.

Oh I do so know what you mean by big classics needing time, and energy. I don’t seem to have the required time, head space etc for those biggies these days. I would love to re-read Middlemarch one day, and Daniel Deronda, Vanity Fair, some of my Trollopes, but the size puts me off. So too does the print size in many editions. So these Alma editions do appeal, I particularly note the Wilkie Collins, I do love his storytelling.

No, I’m the same – I used to sail through big books in my teens and twenties. But I think I didn’t read so deeply then which has a lot to do with it – and I agree about the print size too. These are *very* appealing – and Wilkie Collins is great, so one for you…. 😉

LOL! Yes, I don’t like to waste a page! Alma’s books are always very pretty with nice covers and there are quite a number of interesting looking titles. I have a couple of Melville House Art of the Novella books and they’re not quite like those. They don’t have the uniform covers, for a start! 🙂

I love a fat book and I’ll quiver with horror at having to read your review of B de S, having “done” it for A-level (we still call our cat ‘bifteck d’ours’ on occasion, though, for little reason, which means we must both have read it! Enjoy, though, really!

Oh dear – studying something at school can make you love it for life or kill it forever. Orwell is the former for me, and Cider with Rosie the latter… And yes, I’m enjoying a fairly fat book at the moment!

Devils has a very leisurely opening (unlike, say, Crime and Punishment), but it’s worth persevering with, as it’s a great read and has some of Dostoevsky’s most comic scenes and characters. I can’t imagine how you’re able to do all that wonderful reading, but I hope you enjoy this particular translation when you have time (!!) to get round to it. I would be particularly interested to see how you think it compares with the Pevear and Volokhonsky Demons. Anyway, I’m not the greatest correspondent, but thanks so much for all your entertaining blogs and comments.

Thanks so much for your comment, Roger! If I’m honest, I tend to avoid P/V translations like the plague, as I’ve had some very bad experiences with them and I’m not convinced by the hype and by their working methods. I rather fancy sinking into Demons soon, because it’s probably the last major Dostoevsky I haven’t read. If only there were more hours in the day! 🙂